Curriculum

Reading / Writing / Phonics

Maths

Computing

Science

Reading / Writing / Phonics

Key Stage 1

Reading

Children are taught to read from when they first enter High Cliff Academy; they have an hour of English teaching every day. In the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children follow the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ phonic programme and are set for phonics. This phonics programme is an integrated synthetic phonics programme that teaches decoding and blending of words. Progress is assessed every half term. During daily guided reading teaching session’s, children are taught to apply their phonic knowledge to books as well as learn the skills of inference and deduction.

Learning to read is the combination of phonic knowledge, word recognition and understanding of sentence structure. These are all strategies taught in guided reading.

Children are encouraged to borrow a book from the library and to take it home to share with their parents/carers. We promote the use of a reading record for parents/carers to communicate with class teachers about the reading their child does at home.

Phonics Teaching

Phonics is a method used across many primary schools in the UK which teaches children to read quickly and skilfully. It teaches children the 44 sounds used in the English language. Children are taught to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes and identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make and then blend the sounds together from left to right to make a word.

Phoenix Academy follows the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ programme of teaching phonics. This programme sets out a detailed and systematic approach to the teaching of phonic skills for children, starting in the early year’s foundation stage, with the aim of becoming fluent readers by the age of seven.

Key Stage 2

Pupils will develop their skills in reading, writing, grammar and spelling through the planned English lessons. The lessons will provide opportunities for pupils to develop their word reading as well as comprehension and higher order skills such as inference and bias. They will have opportunities to discuss the structure of texts and identify the actions and motives of characters within their reading. In writing, pupils will be taught the transcription skills (handwriting, spelling, punctuation and grammar) and composition skills. They will have opportunities for writing each day.

This scheme of work will enable our pupils to:

read easily and fluently a range of texts (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) and with good understanding;

develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information;

acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language;

appreciate a rich and varied literary heritage that will help them develop their own appreciation and style;

write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences;

be able to plan their writing through discussion and use of planning tools;

use discussion in pairs, groups and whole class in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas;

be competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others, participating in debate and undertaking roles in drama.

Maths

Maths is taught for at least 45 minutes every day in Key Stage 1 and for at least one hour in Key Stage 2. All lessons are planned around a mastery approach to mathematics focusing on developing a depth of understanding and well educated mathematicians.

Pupils will develop their skills in mental and written calculation, shape and space and measures (including time) through a scheme of work. These skills will be taught and developed through the use of investigative real life contexts and problem solving activities wherever possible. Pupils will be expected to learn common numbers facts and their times tables to 12 times.

The scheme of work will enable our pupils to:

become fluent in mental mathematics, so that they can recall number facts rapidly and accurately;

apply the mathematical operations using whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages through varied and frequent practice;

use their mental and calculations knowledge to apply these to increasingly complex problems;

develop conceptual understanding and apply this to all branches of mathematics including algebra;

reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, identifying and exploring relationships and generalisations and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language;

solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non- routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Computing

The new national curriculum states the importance of children in the UK being ‘computer literate’ and at High Cliff Academy all our classrooms have interactive whiteboards. Our pupils also have regular access to chromebooks in the classroom to aid learning.

We aim to equip our young people with the skill-set and knowledge of computing that they will need for the rest of their life’s to enable them to participate in a digital world.

From September 2014, pupils will cover new aspects which differ from the previous ICT curriculum.

Our pupils will be expected to develop knowledge, skill and understanding in:

the use of sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; working with variables and various forms of input and output;

using logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs;

computer networks including the internet, how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration;

the effective use of search technologies, appreciating how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content;

selecting, using and combining a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information;

using technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognising acceptable /unacceptable behaviour; identifying a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

Science

We aim to develop an awareness and understanding of the importance of science in everyday life with our pupils, by stimulating their curiosity and sparking their imaginations.